Butter arguably makes everything better — even tea. Yak (牦牛) butter tea, a traditional drink of China’s Tibetan ethnic group, is catching on with its     1     (salt) and unexpected flavor.

For Jason, who works at Café Himalaya in New York City,     2     butter in the cup of tea before him ideally comes from a yak.     3    , in New York yak butter is pretty hard to come by, so Jason, as well as anyone who orders it at Café Himalaya, has to make do with butter     4     a cow. Back in Tibet, yak butter is plentiful, yet no one knows exactly when yak butter     5     (add) to hot tea for the first time.

The     6     (introduce) of this hot butter tea to Tibet provided Tibetans with warmth and supplemented their meager (贫乏的) diet. Also known as Tibetan medicine, it is believed to be able to     7     (sharp) one’s mind and body. Today it is part of Tibetan hospitality to offer guests butter tea and refill the bowl again and again until it’s time for goodbyes — at which point a polite guest will drink up     8     is left.

To non-Tibetans, yak butter may taste strange at first as it makes for a very different taste than the sweet butter     9     (produce) by corn-fed cows. Some of them find it helpful     10     (think) of it as a sort of light soup rather than as tea.

Following the barbecue-induced travel craze to the city of Zibo in East China, Chinese social media has once again highlighted the next internet-famous city worthy of     1     (explore).

This time it’s Tianshui, a low-key city in China’s Gansu province that     2     (take) the spotlight recently. It has attracted considerable attention     3     food enthusiasts and social media influencers online,     4     (celebrate) the city’s iconic dish of hot pot.

Known as Tianshui Malatang, which     5     (literal) means spicy and hot, the local dish is popular for its large portion of skewered meat, vegetables,     6     hand-made potato noodles in a pot of boiling broth (肉汤).

Two food bloggers, with over 3 million followers in their account on the popular Chinese Weibo,     7     (be) among the influencers praising the deliciousness of Tianshui Malatang. Their vlogs show eager food enthusiasts lining up on the streets, many of     8     traveled from cities far away.

Dong Liangyan, 29, from Daqing in Heilongjiang province,     9     (locate) more than 2,000 km away from Tianshui, told Xinhua that she was absolutely delighted     10     (enjoy) the local delicacy.

In downtown Xiamen, Fujian Province, a 6-meter-high mound(土堆) that stretches for 60 to 70 meters stands in contrast to the high-rise     1    (construction) all around. It is a vital place for the blue-tailed bee-eaters. Now they are under second-level state     2     (protect).

The blue-tailed bee-eater, or Merops philippinus, is known for its colorful plumage and on the Chinese mainland it     3     (find) in coastal provinces, such as Fujian and Hainan.

    4    (establish) in 2011 as Xiamen’s inaugural city-level nature reserve in an urban area, the Wuyuanwan Nature Reserve provides     5     crucial habitat for the species.

In recent years, with improved environmental conditions in Xiamen and the city government’s commitment    6     nature conservation, the blue-tailed bee-eaters have become regular visitors.

In 2015, the center     7     (observe) some 70 to 80 birds in the area while in 2023, over 200 of the birds were watched at the nesting site.

The birds,     8     are sensitive to smell, build a new nest every year. Therefore, the mound must be cleared and refilled after the blue-tailed bee-eaters fly south.

    9     (safeguard) their habitat better, the city government issued a notice in 2017, setting up a protective zone around the nesting site, where noise and pollution-producing industries are prohibited     10     (strict).

The 13-year experience of preserving blue-tailed bee-eaters has given the center a grasp of their habits and made the Wuyuanwan Nature Reserve a stable home for them.

What to Eat in China: A Traveler’s Guide

Shaoxing is known for its ancient canals crossed with stone bridges and the best     1     (tradition) rice wine in China. I first tried the latter in one of the city’s old wine shops, surrounded by tall jars     2     (fill) with aged wines. There, it     3     (serve) from a small ceramic flask (扁酒瓶) that was warmed in a bath of hot water to enhance the drink’s flavor — perfect for sipping     4     a cold winter day.

Given its long history, it’s no surprise that variations abound. The wine, which is made by fermenting glutinous rice with w heat and aging it in deep earthenware vessels for up to several     5     (decade), can be anywhere from light amber to deep brown in color. And,     6     the slight raisiny sweetness and mellow sherry-like flavor are typical, the wine ranges from quite dry to     7     (extreme) sweet. Because of its unique flavor,     8     great many of people like to use it for cooking. A good bottle will have been aged for at least five years and cost a minimum of $10. Once you’ve got     9     (you) hands on true Shaoxing wine, make the most of it,     10     (integrate) it into your cooking and sipping it on its own.

The number of Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers, moving from Russia into northeastern China,     1    (increase) because of lower levels human activity, improvements in their habitat     2     a smoother transit corridor between countries. The area     3     tigers lived across the Sino-Russian border expanded by about 12 kilometers every three years from 2003-2016. In 2021 the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park was established.     4     (cover) approximately 14,100 square kilometers, the park straddles the provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin. By the end of 2021 the number of wild Amur tigers living there     5     (rise) to 50 from 27 in 2017. The conservation of tigers is recognized as a global challenge, due to     6     (they) expansive habitat requirements. A female needs 400 to 500 square kilometers while a male requires over 1, 000 square kilometers. The collaboration between these neighboring parks creates a     7     (share) home for the animals. The construction of the Sino-Russian cross-border environmental corridor is vital     8     several barriers hinder the movement of tigers between the two sides. Border fences and roads built in the area are among those obstacles. Efforts are required by both sides     9     (promote) the corridor. As the population of prey species including wild boar and deer rises, Amur tigers are travelling     10     (far) into China for food. The expansion of the tigers’ range is expected to continue.

Statistics show that there are more than 1. 9 billion videos related to stove-boiled tea on a popular Chinese short video platform. Stove-boiled tea, a newly     1    (emerge) social activity among young Chinese people, has been filling up social media feeds in recent weeks. Usually several friends sitting around a fire stove enjoy     2     smell of charcoal-grilled snacks and socialize while waiting for the tea     3     (boil). In many ways, it is the perfect activity in the winter,     4     (warm) body and soul in the colder months.

    5     it has recently regained popularity, cooking tea on a stove actually has a long history in China. Stove-boiled tea is derived from an intangible cultural heritage from southwest China’s Yunnan province: huotang roasted tea and a kind of huotang culture thus     6     (form) around it.

The reason why stove-boiled tea is gaining such popularity, apart from its embodiment of traditional Chinese tea culture, is     7     (part) because of its portrayal in the costume television drama “A Dream of Splendor”, which     8    (broadcast) last summer. The activity also shows young people’s pursuit of a sense of ritual, with their     9     (long) for traditional tea culture and aspirations returning to the pastoral (田园). It also helps that tourism is gradually recovering.     10    , stove-boiled tea acts as a social way of combining ancient and modern elements, attracting many young people who love both tourism and traditional tea culture.

Suodiu is an unusual type of Chinese street food that consists of small river stones stir-fried (被煸炒) with a mixture of ingredients (配料) . The practice involves sucking (吮吸) on the stones and then     1     (throw) them away.

Suodiu is believed to have been invented hundreds of years ago by boatmen     2     would prepare the dish when they became stranded in the middle of a river     3     any real food while delivering goods.     4     (comfort) their stomachs, they would stir-fry some river pebbles (鹅卵石) and then suck the flavor from them.

The traditional dish     5     (pass) down through several generations, and today, roadside cooking in China sometimes showcases Suodiu.

A series of videos showing the preparation of Suodiu has recently gone viral on Xiaohongshu, a social media platform, exciting the    6     (curious) of millions of people. It wasn’t just the uniqueness of the dish that interested viewers, but also the high price per serving, considering there is hardly any edible content in it. However, it’s important to note that river pebbles are used because they     7     (supposed) acquire the flavor of seafood over time. Thus, when sucking on them while eating Suodiu, one can experience the taste of fish     8     (combine) with various ingredients.

“Do I have to return the pebbles to you     9     I finish?” one person asked in one of the viral videos, to which the cook replied, “Take them home as     10     happy remembrance.”

According to officials in China, the giant panda is no longer listed as endangered. After working for many years to increase     1     (they) numbers, there are now more than 1800 giant pandas     2    live in the wild. The International Union for Conservation of Nature     3     (remove) the giant panda from the endangered list in 2016. At the time, Chinese officials didn’t agree with the     4     (decide). However, now they do. China has worked for decades to increase the number of these black and white bears because they are regarded     5     national treasures. China has worked to enlarge the pandas’ habitat. They have also made sure that there is plenty of bamboo for them to eat by     6     (plant) more bamboo forests. This has helped increase the number of pandas and stop them from dying out China will continue to support the giant panda population. Alongside efforts     7     (increase) the number of giant pandas in the wild, zoos around the world have breeding programmes. These     8     (design) to help increase the number of giant pandas which in captivity (圈养).     9     (hopeful) the giant panda will have     10    bright future with continued conservation efforts. We certainly hope so. We couldn’t bear to lose them.